Kenny Monday ready to lead HBCU Wrestling renaissance
Kenny Monday and Morgan State are looking to be the leaders of an HBCU wrestling renaissance when the Bears make their return to the mat for the first time since the 1996-1997 season.
“We were looking for a way to help the community and see what we could do to advance the sport. We all knew that there’s no programs at HBCUs, so we wanted to give the kids an opportunity to come to HBCUs and wrestle. Then doing the search and that whole thing, they came to me and asked me to take over the position. When I thought about it, at first I was a little apprehensive about it just because I’m kind of at the end of my career and was kind of ready to sit back and relax and just be a fan. Once I looked into it and did a deep dive into the opportunity, I thought it would probably be more of an impact if someone like myself would take over the position and then lead the program. Once I really looked at it and thought about it, it’s bigger than me. I wanted to make sure that I got this program off to a good start,”
Monday could not have been a more perfect candidate for this position. He has a legendary wrestling career that started back in his youth in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He would grow to become successful at the sport and win several awards to cement his name among one of the best to ever touch the mat. “Undefeated in high school, 140-0, and won four-time state champ at Booker T. Washington, and then from there, I went to Oklahoma State and then of course, three-time All-American, NCAA champion in 1984. Then from that point, I went to the Olympics in ‘88 (gold), ‘92 (silver) and ‘96,” … rest of story at … Tri-cityherald.com/sports/college/articlesource=Wrestling+News
Davidson Unveils Renovated Charles W. Parker Wrestling Room
DAVIDSON, N.C. – The Davidson wrestling program recently unveiled renovations to the Charles W. Parker Wrestling Room which now boasts added practice space, new mats, new wall padding, office space, and exercise equipment.
Siblings of Charlie Parker, who the room was named after, assisted with the ribbon cutting ceremony on September 16 to officially open the new wrestling room. Buzz Parker Jr ’66, Bonnie Parker, Bruce Parker, and Laura Beth Whittemore Parker were all in attendance.
“The ceremony to unveil our new wrestling room was made more special with the attendance of four of the five Parker siblings,” said head coach Nate Carr Jr. “Coach Parker had a great impact on this program, and it was an honor having his family in attendance today.”
The refreshed space, which features over 5,000 square-feet of practice and office space sports brand new practice mats that cover the wrestling room from wall-to-wall, brand-new wall padding that surrounds the entire perimeter of the wrestling area, as well as two treadmills, eight stationary bikes, free weights, bleacher seating, a large flat screen television, and updated wall decals.
Also, a new office space has been added directly within the wrestling room to give scholar-athletes direct access to a meeting space with staff members. This space can accommodate up to six people and has viewing access of the wrestling room.
“We are extremely excited about the renovations to our wrestling room,” said Carr. “The upgrades have given our athletes a state-of-the-art resource to train at a high level, and it also given us more space to utilize during practices. This renovation will go a long way in benefiting both our program and our scholar-athletes.” … rest of story at … Davidsonwildcats.com/news/2023/wrestling-unveils-renovated-charles-w-parker-wrestling-room
What Would EIWA Conference Realignment Look Like?
With the large NCAA conferences being in the news cycle as of late, it feels right to discuss the potential of a realignment with the EIWA. Conference realignment “is so hot right now” in the words of Zoolander – so it has me asking, what would it look like? When would it occur? What other questions do we need answers to? The EIWA is the only wrestling-specific DI conference in the nation. This is part of what makes it unique. In a pessimist opinion, this also makes it susceptible to fading away forever. I say this because every school in the EIWA has a parent conference the school is part of where other sports are played. A perfect example of this is the Ivy League schools. There is no Ivy League wrestling conference tournament, so they are included with the EIWA schools at the end of the year.
This makes the perfect transition to how this article came to fruition. By the looks of it, the Ivy League teams will eventually withdraw from the EIWA to start hosting their own conference championships. I use the term “eventually” because it’s been discussed over the past few seasons with no real timeframe. It does appear to be picking up steam lately and will become a reality. Let’s assume the Ivy League schools leave. The conference would become an 11-team conference once Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Penn, and Princeton withdraw.
Of the remaining teams, there is a hodge-podge of parent conferences represented. Actually, six to be exact. This is not a normal conference. It’s not uncommon for a wrestling conference to absorb a team from another sports conference because the school’s main conference does not have wrestling. A prime example of this is Missouri. Every sport in the athletic department competes with the SEC. We know the SEC does not have a wrestling conference, so the Missouri wrestling squad is a Big 12 Conference affiliate. There are a few examples of this elsewhere.
The Patriot League is home to American, Army, Navy, Lehigh, and Bucknell. The American East conference is home for Binghamton. The CAA is the sports conference for Drexel and Hofstra. Long Island and Sacred Heart each call the Northeast Conference home in their athletic department. The lone division 3 school, Franklin & Marshall, belongs to the Centennial Conference. … rest of story at … Intermatwrestle.com/articles.html/college/eiwa/what-would-eiwa-conference-realignment-look-like
USA wins 2023 Senior Worlds overall medal count for second straight year with 14, Japan second with 12
In 2022, the United States won the overall medal count for all disciplines at the Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia for the first time in history, capturing 15 medals.
In 2023, with the Senior World Championships back in Belgrade, Team USA did it again, winning the overall medal count back-to-back with 14 total medals.
The United States medal haul included seven in men’s freestyle and seven in women’s freestyle. Overall, the USA had four individual champions: men’s freestyle gold medalists Vito Arujau (61 kg), Zain Retherford (70 kg) and David Taylor (86 kg), plus women’s freestyler Amit Elor (72 kg). Taylor won his third career World title, and Elor won her second straight gold medal, while Arujau and Retherford won their first Senior World title.
Silver medals went to women’s freestylers Jacarra Winchester (55 kg) and Macey Kilty (65 kg) plus men’s freestyler Kyle Dake (74 kg). Bronze medalists were women’s freestylers Jennifer Page (59 kg), Sarah Hildebrandt (50 kg), Helen Maroulis (57 kg) and Adeline Gray (76 kg) and men’s freestylers Kyle Snyder (97 kg), Zahid Valencia (92 kg) and Mason Parris (125 kg).
Gray won her ninth career Senior World medal, six golds and three bronzes, and along with her 2020 Olympic silver medal, she is now up to 10 overall medals. Maroulis is now a seven-time World medalist, with three gold medals, two silver medals and two bronze medals, and with her two Olympic medals, now has nine overall medals. Snyder continued his streak of winning a medal for the United States to nine straight years, starting with his World gold medal in 2015. His Senior World medal haul is seven medals, three gold, two silver and two bronze, and with his two Olympic medals, is now up to nine total medals.
The USA had the most medals in men’s freestyle and the second-most in wonen’s freestyle behind only Japan.
Japan placed second in the overall medal count with 12 medals, including eight in women’s freestyle, two in men’s freestyle and two in Greco-Roman. Included were six golds, three silvers and three bronzes. Japan won the medal count in women’s freestyle.
Iran was third on the medal table with 10 medals, … rest of story at … Themat.com/news/2023/september/27/usa-wins-2023-senior-worlds-overall-medal-count-for-second-straight-year-with-14
TDR blog
After 20 seasons of publicizing wrestling The TakeDown Report’s (TDR) focus has changed to the collecting of college coaching records from North America since 1903. We will continue to recognize and reward successful wrestlers in eastern North Carolina (east of Raleigh & Fayetteville), assist with schools in starting or re-starting a team and this blog. Join us on our FaceBook Page – “The TakeDown Report” for photos and news. Please send results, stories, links and news to pass along. E-mail us at takedownreport@gmail.com
Martin Fleming, Editor
Takedown Report
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